Occasionally, user or operator intervention is necessary for completing a print job. For example, a print job may call for a size or type of media that is not available to the printer without user intervention. The media may be unavailable because it is not typically loaded into the printer or because the printer has depleted its supply of the media.
Conventionally, when user intervention is required for completion of a print job, the printer either waits for the intervention without allowing other print jobs to be processed or else the printer flushes the print job requiring intervention so that other print jobs may be processed. Neither of these solutions is adequate. Requiring all jobs to wait until the required intervention has been satisfied causes unnecessary delays for other jobs where no intervention is required. Flushing a print job to allow other jobs unnecessarily requires the user to reprint the job requiring intervention.
Printers have recently been developed that are able to store or hold print jobs for later printing. These printers are often used to create multiple copies of a document. Typically, a job is printed and held. A user or operator may later retrieve the print job and reprint it. Alternatively, the printer may be made to hold the print job without printing an original first.